, 1887-08-09
CONCERNING LUNCHES.

Places Where the Character Is Brought
out-The Gregarious Lunchers.
In vino veritas is an old saying that
has much of truth in it; but it was said
by somebody when the drinking of wine
was universal. A free translation of the
proverb, for present purposes, might be
made thus: "a lunch ones real charac-
ter is revealed" The character comes
out, wine or no wine. There is the
luncher who is always thinking what
each dish costs and whether he can
afford it. He carefully studies the bill
of fare. and selects from it the cheapest
dish that his stomach can digest. He
never takes the extras-feels that he can
not afford pie or wine or the after dinner
coffee that is indispensable to the true
epicure. He eats because he has to live,
and gets very little enjoyment out of it.
He grudges the quarter that he spends
daily, and goes into elaborate mental cal
culations as to how much he could save
in the course of a year if he only could
go without any lunch at all. "Three
hundred days at twenty-five cents a day
makes $75 a year, which would buy five
suits of clothes or pay rent for two
months" Alas, that man was made
with a stomach that requires filling so
oftenl
Then there is the luncher who has
plenty of money, but no appetite; who is
blase i'll, the matter of food, who spends
81 a day for his midday rejection, and
yet gets little satisfaction out of it.
These two are, perhaps, equally I'M
happy. Blessed is the man who has a
good appetitel If he cannot afford more,
his five cent sandwich and piece of pie,
washed down with a five cent glass of
milk, affords him more real enjoyment
than D~elmonico's choicest dainties afford
the stated millionaire. If, by chance, he
makes a lucky strike, and can command
half a dollar, how he revels in the cut of
roast beef, the glass of ale and the pie
and French coffee that make up what
seems to him a princely banquet
See the good natured man! How the
humor in him, developed by the process
of eating and drinking, shines out in
every word and look and gesturel At
lunch, the %loquacious become more talk
alive; the reserved more silent; the eco
nomical more sparing of money; the
imaginative, holder and sometimes more
unveracious; the witty, quicker and hap
pier in their turns of thought and phrase.
1t is the gregarious lunchers who get
the most pleasure put of their '%'nooning."
There are dozens of places, high and
low, where day after day the same COM
pany of two or four, or half a dozen,
meet at lunch time. These are not of
the hurried sort, who must get through
as quickly as possible, and be back at the
Office in half an hour from the time of
leaving. They take three-quarters of an
hour at table. They tell stories, talk per-
sonal gossip, discourse on politics, horse
racing, baseball, or whatever topic comes
uppermost.
This is all carried on in a good natured
way that ought to, and probably does,
aid digestion wonderfully.
A word should be said about the rest
less luncher, who is never satisfied to go
two days co~nseCutively to the same place;
h is always looking up new restau-
rants and who, in consequence, is badly
served more than half the time. Some
men are constructed in this scattering
kind of way, and cannot be happy with
u constant change; but they have the
worst of it in the long rum. A. Stew
art in The Epoch.